Physical manipulation of the Escherichia coli chromosome reveals its soft nature.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
; 109(40): E2649-56, 2012 Oct 02.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-22984156
ABSTRACT
Replicating bacterial chromosomes continuously demix from each other and segregate within a compact volume inside the cell called the nucleoid. Although many proteins involved in this process have been identified, the nature of the global forces that shape and segregate the chromosomes has remained unclear because of limited knowledge of the micromechanical properties of the chromosome. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally the fundamentally soft nature of the bacterial chromosome and the entropic forces that can compact it in a crowded intracellular environment. We developed a unique "micropiston" and measured the force-compression behavior of single Escherichia coli chromosomes in confinement. Our data show that forces on the order of 100 pN and free energies on the order of 10(5) k(B)T are sufficient to compress the chromosome to its in vivo size. For comparison, the pressure required to hold the chromosome at this size is a thousand-fold smaller than the surrounding turgor pressure inside the cell. Furthermore, by manipulation of molecular crowding conditions (entropic forces), we were able to observe in real time fast (approximately 10 s), abrupt, reversible, and repeatable compaction-decompaction cycles of individual chromosomes in confinement. In contrast, we observed much slower dissociation kinetics of a histone-like protein HU from the whole chromosome during its in vivo to in vitro transition. These results for the first time provide quantitative, experimental support for a physical model in which the bacterial chromosome behaves as a loaded entropic spring in vivo.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Cromossomos Bacterianos
/
Segregação de Cromossomos
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Escherichia coli
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Dureza
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Testes de Dureza
/
Modelos Biológicos
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Ano de publicação:
2012
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos